How will B1G schedule 14 teams?

College football teams usually schedule 12 or 13 regular-season games. The Big Ten Conference will soon have 14 teams. Clearly, this is a problem. ESPN.com Big Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg says the current plan is to go with an eight-game conference slate with two seven-team divisions, with every team playing one game per year against their division opponents, one game each year against a "traditional" rival in the other division, and the final game against a rotation of the other six conference members. The flaw in this plan is that some long-time Big Ten rivals may not see each other more often than once every six years. Rittenberg says this plan is written in pencil, not ink, and there could be drastic changes down the road:

Adam Rittenberg

"I can tell you a 9-game conference schedule certainly is on the table for Big Ten athletic directors, and a 10-game conference schedule -- which creates an even number of home games and road games -- also will be strongly considered. The crossover question relates more to preexisting rivalries than the quality of the opponents in certain years. ... If those rivalries aren't worth preserving, the crossovers aren't necessary. That's a debate that must take place among the ADs. Clearly some rivalries are worth preserving, while others maybe aren't. If no potential crossover rivalries are worth preserving, let's eliminate the crossovers altogether and just have a rotation so teams play one another more often."